London’s hotels and other accommodation recorded over 56 million overnight stays last year, more than any other city in Europe, London & Partners has reported citing new research by European Cities Marketing.
London has a flourishing hotel sector with over 140,000 rooms, which is expected to grow over the next few years. According to European Cities Marketing (ECM), London’s visitor accommodation recorded over 41 million overnight stays from international tourists, revealing that the city remains open to visitors from all over the world. Overall London grew seven per cent year-on-year. Paris had the second most number of overnight stays followed by Berlin, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Prague, Vienna, Munich and Amsterdam.
For international overnight stays, the list of the cities is the same as compared to 2015. London (+1.3 percent) and Paris (-12.9 percent) are the top two cities with highest number of international bed-nights. The Spanish cities of Barcelona (+8.5 percent) and Madrid (+9.4 percent) had the highest growth in the top 10 list.
Visitors from the USA (11 percent), Germany (nine percent), and UK (nine percent) make up approximately 30 percent of the source markets to European cities. The ECM research reports that that overall European city tourism is growing, with the growth mostly coming from European markets.
Rajesh Agrawal, Deputy Mayor of London for Business, said: ‘These sensational figures show London’s enduring appeal as one of the most popular international destinations.
‘With our world-class sport, culture, art, history and architecture, it is not surprising that visitors continue to flock to the capital, proving that London is open to people from all four corners of the world.’
Ignasi de Delas, ECM President, explains: ‘We saw another exceptionally successful year for city tourism in Europe. London and Paris remain by far the two most popular cities in Europe, although there is very strong growth from many other cities. Europe offers tourists an unrivalled array of culture, history and food experiences which, coupled with a diverse accommodation sector, means cities across the continent are hosting more and more travellers.’
